Summer Away
by BonesnCastleFREAK
Summary: Set during their teen years... Will, Nat, Jay and Erin spend a summer week away. Is romance in the air? Linstead/Manstead. Rated for suggestive themes and minor language.


**HELLO! Longtime fan of One Chicago, but first-time writer. I hope you enjoy this! **

**Fluff piece, imagining Linstead and Manstead have known each other since they were children, sharing everything together. This story follows how Manstead become a couple and share their first kiss. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, all familiar items belong to their rightful owners.**

"Hey wait up! Not so fast. Slow the hell down." Will panted as he climbed the rocky terrain, nearly tripping on the root of a tree as he, Jay, Nat and Erin hiked their way to a clearing.

"You're just really unfit aren't you Will," Nat winked at him, easily overtaking him. Erin followed her best friend, rolling her eyes at Will, "You're going to make us late."

"Excuse me, who is the one carrying all the food? Besides Er, we are having a picnic, not some fancy ass ball." Will grumbled. "Jay, come here and help me, how are you not carrying crap? I'm the one that wants to be a doctor, don't need much heavy lifting. Whereas you, Mr Army Man needs to carry 30kg backpacks across the desert one day."

"Alright alright, quit your yapping bro," Jay suddenly appears from nowhere, having run down the hill to meet his younger brother. He grabs the bag and the basket Will was holding and proceeds to help his brother up the hill. Natalie and Erin having walked ahead, whispering to each other.

"Bro, it was your turn to carry the bag. You insisted on the basket too," Jay nudged Will.

Will's cheeks flushed, "Well, I didn't want Nat to feel uncomfortable on the walk. So I insisted."

"Can you be anymore obvious?" Jay laughed, "Get a move on and ask her before someone else like Jeff does." Jay's voice suddenly grows 5x louder in the silent forest.

"Shut up Jay! Geez, like it took you what, 4 years to ask Erin out? You're one to talk." Will rolls his eyes at him, and glances at the girls, making sure they didn't hear anything. Thankfully for him, they were much ahead now, having placed a good 50m between them.

"Okay a) I couldn't because of that stupid Charlie guy and b) it's called foreplay!" Jay crows.

Will could feel his eyes wanting to pop out from the amount of eye-rolling that he was doing. Jay and Erin recently had sex, discreetly of course, neither parents knowing and it was all they could do to try to keep it in their pants this week, with their parents sleeping not 30m away in their tents. Erin and Natalie sharing one, Jay and Will sharing another, and each of their respective parents were sharing one. This 'picnic hike' was their chance to have some alone time.

"Bro, do you really have to do it here and now, like seriously, what are Natalie and I supposed to do while you're off somewhere?" Will asked.

"Look man, whatever you want. Erin is telling her now. If you wanted you can go spill your beans about your feelings. That should keep her well and distracted." Jay smugly grinned.

"Whatever, as long we get to eat first, I'm good."

"Trust me, plenty of eating needed. We need fuel anyway," Jay winked.

"F-" Will was cut off from anything when the girls suddenly yelled at them.

"OI! Hurry up slow pokes!" Erin shouted at them.

Jay and Will hurried the last 50m or so into the clearing. The grassy field was breathtaking. To the side was a small stream of water, running down into the forest, different colours flowers littered the place. The air was fresh and earthy, you just know that words don't do this place justice.

Jay and Will quickly go to work, unpacking the food and laying everything on the mat, while Nat and Erin got some water from the stream and placed some filtering pills in, trying to get some clean water.

The four settled in for a good meal, laughing and happily sharing stories and jokes.

* * *

In 2 hours, the food was cleared away and they were lazing in the sun. Jay leaning up against a rock with Erin's head in his lap, running his fingers through her hair. Not a few metres away sat Will and Natalie, sitting a little too close to be 'just friends', heads bowed chatting away about something. Will was nervously picking at the grass. _Just friends my ass_, Jay mused. Erin looked up into his piercing baby blues in wonder when she felt his body shake from silent laughter, and then glanced over at her best friend and her boyfriend's brother.

"She likes him too you know," Erin thought aloud.

Jay stares at his girlfriend for a bit, "It's hard not to tell. I think the only people that don't know that Natalie and Will like each other, is Natalie and Will." Jay trails off. "You know, we could just leave them to figure things out, disappear for a bit. Have some alone time for ourselves." Jay's cheeky grin appears on his handsome face.

Erin smirked. It really doesn't help that her boyfriend's rouge-ish good looks, and charming smile can make her melt anytime. She leans up to caress Jay's face, feeling his 2 day stubble that she's grown to love. "Find a place private enough, you never know."

Jay's grin grows even wider and he bends forward to capture Erin's lips in the upside down Spiderman kiss. "What are you waiting for?"

"OI! We're going, behave you two!" Jay shouts across to his younger brother, grabs Erin's hand and they take off to the other side of the woods.

* * *

"I feel like they could be less obvious about the whole having sex thing. Honestly." Natalie shakes her head and looks up at Will, startled to find him inches from her face.

Will leans back, "Heh. Yeah, that's funny." He scratches the back of his head, not knowing what to really say to the girl who's held his heart for nearly 2 years, back when she first moved to Chicago with her family, and she physically ran straight into him outside the administration office.

Nat studies Will for a second, unsure what to say. They are normally extremely good friends and she can chat his ear off about anything, but since coming onto this summer vacation with her best friend, her boyfriend and their families, she's been feeling more gun-shy with Will. Of course, she can't deny her pounding heart every time she glances at him, especially when he's already looking at her. She can't deny the flips her belly does when he smiles, or the fact that she loses all coherent thoughts when he talks about his passions of becoming a doctor and wanting to save lives. She definitely can't deny having the hugest crush on his ginger hair that flops when he doesn't style it, or his sparking eyes, or his cheeky smile that seems to grow every time she sees him.

"_oh my god Natalie, you need to stop acting like this,_" she chided herself gently.

"So-" Will's voice broke her out of her reverie. "So, do you want to go do something, while my brother does things I shall never speak of?"

Natalie grins and laughs in response, "That's my best friend your brother is doing unspeakable things to. I will hear about it later anyway. Besides, you'll want to do those unspeakable things one day too."

"True," Will responds as he gets up and walks away to the stream, "But yknow, I'm hoping one day it'll be to you." He mutters under his breath.

"What?" Natalie asked, confusion spreading across her face. _"Did I just Will correctly?"_ Natalie thought, shocked. _"Does he… like me too?"_

Will turns back to look at Nat, an alarmed look on his face. He cursed his teenage hormones and his teenage brain. "You heard that? I wasn't even facing you or speaking loudly."

Nat looks at him, lips pursed, "I uh, yeah. Good hearing remember? Violin player. It's alright." She shook her head, "Hey I found some rocks, we can go skip stones or something by standing in that huge rock in the middle of the stream."

Will stands rooted to the spot as Natalie walks by, the wind blowing her hair and the smell of her vanilla perfume she had spritzed on earlier, tickling his nose. "Um sure?" He follows her like a lost puppy towards the stream, the conversation he wanted will now have to wait.

* * *

Natalie and Will's laughter rang through the clearing. "Not like that! It's a flick of the wrist, here." Will was talented at many things. Skipping stones he found, not one of them.

"How are you getting this? Your stones are skipping at least 4 times. Mine just plops into the water!" Will frustratedly skips another stone, the stone dropping into the river with a loud plop.

Natalie simply laughs at Will, "Here," She grabs at his wrist, and the two suddenly pull back, a spark of electricity shocking them. Natalie nearly falls backward from the surprise and Will has to grab at her arm so she doesn't fall, pulling him flush against his body.

"Um, er," Natalie suddenly feels self-conscious, her teenage body not well developed enough. She tucks a strand of hair behind her head, and steps back, over some stones and hops back onto the grass. Will follows and stands behind her, reading and feeling the electricity and tension that's between them.

"What did you say just now?" Nat looks at Will, all shining eyes.

"I-uhm, well," Will scratched his head, unsure what to say to her, not wanting to appear the hormonal teenager he really is. In all his stuttering, Natalie suddenly leans up and brushes her lips against his.

"You're really cute when you do that Will."

Will's cheeks turn the same colour as his hair, "What the stuttering?"

Natalie softly smiles, "Yeah. I heard what you said before. I guess I'm being brave and doing something about it." Natalie blushes too, her cheeks flaming.

Will just stares open-mouthed at her, unsure what the hell to say. Everything, his entire dream came true and he didn't know what the hell to do.

Natalie misinterprets Will's silence and takes a step back, ready to turn away from him. She's startled back to reality when she's pulled by the arm back into Will's arms. He wraps his frame around her lithe body, inhaling her scent. "You are not going anywhere, I just can't believe my dreams have just come true."

"Your dreams?" Nat raises an eyebrow and smiles cheekily. "Well, y-"

Will doesn't allow her to finish her thought, instead covering her lips with his in a tender kiss. Natalie's face lights up and she returns it, grabbing at his collar and pulling him so close an ant couldn't squeeze past their bodies. She somehow manages to shift all their combined body weight towards her direction and she loses balance, falling and pulling Will down to the soft grass with her. They chuckle and simply lock lips again, making out with as much fervor as they could muster.

That is how Jay and Lindsay found them later when they walked hand in hand back onto the field after their little rendezvous. They smiled and hi-5 each other, happy for the couple that was lying in the grass, in their own little bubble.

* * *

**DONE! I hope you enjoyed this OS. **

**Please R&R, appreciate any comments that can be given. I didn't have time to proof read, so I hope it's ok.**

**Thanks,**

**Genie**


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